To be fair [insert Letterkenny joke], mine were 1/2 Mephisto (Ghost Toof).
My guess is the breeder focused more on the cannabinoid ratio and less on vigor and yield. For what you paid, you might as well finish them. I have noticed Mephisto seeds likes to put on a lot if growth during early flower.
Not to derail here, but how well do the octopots perform for you?
also consider your trying to grow autos in a rather unforgiving grow style for them where hindrances or hiccups at the start can and do have consequences, not saying we all don’t get dud seeds now and then as i just did with some fastbud seeds its just regardless things happen that may be outside our current realm of control.
As for mephisto the hype has definitely gotten larger than it should probably be due to that sense of scarcity that tends to do that, my own experience has been mixed with their seeds and any future purchases im only gonna go with their main lines, not any of the side cross illumiauto stuff
I love them. You get the advantages of soil and hydro while avoiding many of their drawbacks. The plants are so easy to care for. I still check on them every day, but they each have a 5 gallon reservoir and can be left alone for over a week in veg or multiple days in flower. You don’t have to worry about how much water to provide since the plants drink as they see fit. It’s a form of automation that requires no moving parts, timers, pumps, or electricity. I’ve grown the same plants side by side in fabric pots and the ones in Octopots grow faster and yield better.
I also like that buying Octopots supports a small family business and that they are made in USA.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
How do you nutrient feed?
I’ve mentioned it in my grow thread. I mix nutrients in a 5 gallon bucket, then use an auto-siphon to fill the reservoir:
The green bucket sits on a step stool. The auto-siphon moves the liquid through tubing to the red funnel into the rez.
Interesting. I had no clue. But i did really like your seeds 
Id say they focused a little too hard when it came to my seeds! Hmmm. Now you have me second guessing tossing this last one out. Its actually a very happy looking stunted little runt at the moment, and the roots are starting to develop some more fuzzy hairs. It has actually grown a bit since yesterday too. I think your comment about already having this much invested is what hit home mostly though 
No worries. My threads tend to wander all over the place
Good point. If you have been following any of my grows, you know I have lots of experience in hindering young and old plants in my system!!
However, in my earlier grows, the babies always recovered quickly and went back to previous growth rates. The main downside I saw with my screw ups was an extended time before they were ready to harvest. Major screw ups seemed to add about 1 week each time. With those Ghost Toof plants for example, I almost killed the roots at least three different times. That seemed to add about 3 weeks to the normal growing times - but - I still had my best ever yield with autos - and some dam potent meds at the end. Actually, those plants were my best ever yield period as far as grams/day.
These guys did have some small stress early on with the transfer to the foam pucks, but it was way below what other autos I have grown have suffered and just shrugged off. The main difference is these babies never had a growth rate to begin with.
Still, this one has maybe another week before I have to make the final decision.
I think you are exactly right about that. Plus, people seem to always be searching for that mysterious, mythical, newest, fanciest, most rumored, as seen in some YouTube video, “something” that will help them achieve a better harvest. I am just as guilty of that as anyone. Well, except for the Youtube video part. I absolutely HATE videos. Dont even get me started
Maybe also one thing to consider, this the first time you basically started out the seed in the system right? Maybe that has something to do with it?
I def think you should give it a go, but I am a lil biased just cause I want to see what happens with it…
I will say, with my somewhat limited knowledge, while maybe stunted, the color looks damn healthy!
Also, I feel like you had a theory a little while ago about having the flow being a lil on the wet side for early early growth? Maybe since you went for fuzzies so early on it stunted it?
Your questions and @Mr.Sparkle’s comments on early stress made me re-think this a bit.
In the past when ever I have stressed the plants or roots, it has always been easy to see in the leaves. Its just like nute burn, or bad PH, etc etc. The leaves tell you that something is wrong right away or within a day or two.
This plant has never looked bad other than a little pale earlier when I was still holding the EC down for some new additions. So your comment about it looking good is on-point - but - I think it shows that this plant has not been stressed. I think its just the genetics as @ReikoX mentioned above.
As far as the new technique for starting seeds in the system, dont forget that I tried that several times before I put these babies in the system, and it worked just fine as far as the health of the babies. The problems I had with the earlier trials were not due to stress but rather with the mechanics of supporting the roots and stems and making the transfer to the pucks. Over all, I am still convinced that starting them early in the system is lower stress than the old way of transferring them from perlite.
I am very careful when it comes to reducing flow rates, and so far I have not reduced it enough to cause any kind of stress. Im still running well above the ‘dry’ stage with lots of droplets all over the roots at all times.
Well its more that some plants and definitely in the auto realm if they do hit stressors they may not show it in the leaves mind you your runt pics above show a little but the plants just slow right up kinda like they are shocked and trying to figure out what to do next, now whether that’s plant specific or genetic related ive seen both but when plant specific its usually when the initial tap root gets damaged in some way or hits an obstacle it has to get around causing it to hold up growth till it works around that situation, obviously thats not really a trait we want but from a survival standpoint there is a reason why its there.
That makes perfect sense to me. My only counter is that if these babies are reacting to stress of some sort, they sure seem to be far more sensitive than any other autos Ive grown in the system.
I may not have mentioned it in this thread, but I did nothing for 7 months earlier this year - from about April through the start of this grow in late Oct - but kill off seedlings doing experiments on all aspects of the system. I have collected many seeds I never will try to grow again, so they were my sacrificial babies. I would make a change to the system, then start two seeds and see how it went. While they were getting started I played with all sorts of timing and nozzles variations. I pushed the limits as far as I could - deliberately going too far to see how the plants reacted. Plus, for most of that time I was running waaaaaaay too much chlorine in the system due to a stupid math error. Im claiming it was while I was stoned 
Over that 7 months I think I killed off at least 2 dozen babies. When I say killed off I mean I took them out of the system and tossed them. They did NOT die on their own due to the stress. I was just ready to try something new and wanted a fresh start.
None of those test subjects grew this slowly even with far more serious stress. To me that indicates this degree of stress reaction is an inherent trait in these particular seeds that I got.
Of course, there is no telling how others will do, and @BarefootAndBlazed posted pics above showing his canna-cheese baby doing much better. His is still a little on the small side for this age but not really outside the range you could expect to see.
On the plus side - the baby continues to look really happy - and - its even growing some! So, I think I will keep it at least a few more days. If this trend continues, it will have earned a reprieve!
This grow is down to one Mephisto plant (for now) and Im adding two of @sebrings Waterstone babies to fill the other two spots in my system. I think I will change the thread title and just post progress on the Waterstone here rather than start a new thread. I dont think anyone has finished a grow of Waterstone yet with the new seeds.
I also got some of those in the mail the other day from that seed drop, have to wait on some space though, and if you knew my habits 2 dozen seedlings over 7 months seems minor in comparison lol others around here bug me on that often.
LOL I am glad Im not the only one around here that abuses babies!!
Well I’ll just say, you have really inspired me to try a micro grow with a spare PC case I have, along with doing some breeding and using some Bridgelux EB strips…
I might have a couple questions I’ll ask you on your grow thread.
The Canna-cheese is looking quite happy, and is growing, but its still growing slowly. I did notice an odd thing tonight that I have not seen before on the newest set of leaves. All of the fingers look narrower than they should be and one of them has an odd deformity. PH, humidity, EC are all just as they have been and well within range.
Time for a waterstone up-date.
I started two seedlings a couple of weeks ago in the system and they were doing great. All three of the seeds I soaked popped really fast and grew at a really good rate. Then my cat ate the two that I put into the system when I turned my back for 30 seconds!
So, I started soaking three new seeds using the same exact DVD case trick, only this time it took several extra days for them to pop and they grew much slower in the paper towels. After they finally got into the system, they were both slow to take off. One of them turned out to be a whorled phylotaxy, and the other one only had a single leaf!
Turns out the single leaf one was most likely due to some kind of mold or ‘damping off’ issue. I kept this second batch a lot wetter than the first time around - AND - I re-used the same paper towel. That combined with the extra time in the paper towels is what I think caused the single leaf problem. Ive had bad luck in the past with the three leafed whirly birds, so I culled them both, and started over.
This time I kept the paper towels barely damp and used a fresh paper towel! It went much better and faster. Back to a fast initial crack and rapid root growth in the paper towel. However, when I put them in the system, they both were slower than I like to get over the transfer shock. One of them perked up after about 1.5 days, but the other one took almost 4 days - which is way long.
So Im going to cull that slow poke and try a new technique for starting seeds in the system that I hope eliminates all transfer shock. I’ll be starting that one tomorrow.
Here are pics of the current two in the system.
So far, my impression on these waterstone seeds is favorable. They seem quite vigorous - as long as you dont screw up the germination process
To show some solidarity, I went and scanned my plants. I think it’s just some physical damage as opposed to something more nefarious.
I was just about to reply that I couldnt imagine how that leaf could have gotten damaged. Then I remembered that baby did get bopped last week - when those leaves would have been pretty small. I looked at it after dropping a chunk of Styrofoam on it and decide it had not been damaged…
Thanks for the tip. I will quit worrying about mysterious deficiencies now
I was gonna say, you already caught the cat messing with the other ones lol
LOL Yeah, I thought of that too, and I was getting ready to withhold more of her catnip, but then I remembered that was like 10 days ago.when she ate the other two. These leaves were not out yet, so she gets her catnip after all
I started (another) new waterstone seedling in the system tonight and tossed the runt. I’m trying out yet another new germination technique that I hope will reduce transfer stress. I’ll post details in the aero thread.
